Abstract: Objective To explore the level of circulating tumor cells （CTCs） in peripheral blood of patients with gastric cancer （GC） and its significance with clinicopathological characteristics of GC. Methods Forty-one patients with GC from July 2013 to January 2014 of our hospital were enrolled as GC group. Venous blood of 5ml was taken in the morning from the median cubital vein. The CTCs in peripheral blood were purified by negative selection using immunomagnetic beads. The CTCs were detected by immunofluorescence in situ hybridization. The positive rate of CTCs was measured and its relationships with clinicopathological characteristics （TNM stage， T stage， N stage， pathological stage， tumor size， degree of differentiation and vascular invasion） of GC were also investigated. Meanwhile， 24 patients with benign gastric diseases were chosen as control group. Results The positive rate of CTCs in peripheral blood of control group was 8.3％ （2／24）， lower than 63.4％ （26／41） of GC group with significant difference （P＜0.05）. The positive rate of CTCs in peripheral blood was no correlated with TNM stage， T stage， N stage， pathological stage， tumor size， degree of differentiation and vascular invasion. Conclusion The positive rate of CTCs in GC patients was high and there was no significant relationship between positive rate of CTCs and clinicopathologic characteristics of GC. The CTCs can be detected at the early stage of GC， indicating that micrometastases at the early stage of tumor.